ITI Bloggers June 6th, 2005
In an interview with SLA’s Director of Exhibits, DeVonne Henry, she said there were 262 exhibitors in the hall, representing 440 booths and 58 new exhibitors. The new ones are a combination of startups and Canadian companies. As for attendees, she’s guessing it’s verging on 5,000. There have been lots of walk-ins, apparently. The hall looks great, with wide aisles and lots of natural light. I particularly like the national flags at the entrance.
Marydee Ojala
Editor, ONLINE: The Leading Magazine for Information Professionals
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ITI Bloggers June 6th, 2005
Following an upbeat lights, music, and video show that highlighted Toronto and the opportunities offered at this conference “to develop the future of your profession,” attendees were informed and entertained by Dr. Don Tapscott, possibly one of the best keynoters I’ve heard. Author of several key business texts, (including Paradigm Shift and The Digital Economy), Tapscott talked today about the arguments from his text co-authored with David Ticoll, The Naked Corporation: How the Age of Transparency will Revolutionize Business. The bottom line is that transparency (information openness) is good for business and information professionals can play a key role—we have the opportunity to help our companies harness the power of transparency.
“Transparency is really information integrity,” he declared. Transparency is a new force where everyone that interacts with a company has unprecedented access to company information and can scrutinize and judge that information. He described the 4 key drivers of this transparency as technological, economic, demographic, and sociopolitical. If you want to know more about him and his thinking, visit his Web site at www.dontapscott.com.
Tapscott is President of New Paradigm Learning Corporation, which he founded in 1993, and Adjunct Professor of Management, Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. The SLA Marketplace is selling copies of his books and had a book signing after the keynote. I was honored to shake his hand and tell him how much I enjoyed the opportunity to hear him speak.
Paula J. Hane
News Bureau Chief
Information Today, Inc.
www.infotoday.com
phane {at} infotoday(.)com
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ITI Bloggers June 6th, 2005
I was talking with a corporate information professional this morning whose library set up an internal blog to share knowledge about the SLA meeting. She and a colleague post what they’ve learned during the day so that it can immediately be read by those back in the home office. What a terrific idea! If others have done this, I’d love to hear about it.
Marydee Ojala
Editor, ONLINE: The Leading Magazine for Information Professionals
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ITI Bloggers June 6th, 2005
Don Tapscott gave a wonderful keynote speech on the age of transparency. Paula Hane’s full report will be published here shortly. Here is Don Tapscott autographing copies of his book, The Naked Corporation, in the exhibit hall following his speech.
Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today
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ITI Bloggers June 6th, 2005
Yes, Toronto is on Lake Ontario, but that’s not exactly a tropical lake. But yes indeed, Toronto does have hippos. (Somebody else was skeptical too!) But maybe some SLA attendees will be riding them!
Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today
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ITI Bloggers June 6th, 2005
I heard about this last week in Paris, thanks to Francois Libmann’s BASES newsletter, and was pleased to have official confirmation here in Toronto. CSA and Dialog have agreed to reinstate 31 CSA files on the Dialog system. They’ll even have the same file numbers they had before. One caveat, academic holders of Dialog passwords will not have access to the CSA files. That would put CSA in competition with itself, wouldn’t it? Meanwhile, CSA has hired Michael Gruenberg to help it get a better foothold on the corporate market. This is a new direction for CSA and one that I know several information professionals will applaud.
Marydee Ojala
Editor, ONLINE: The Leading Magazine for Information Professionals
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ITI Bloggers June 6th, 2005
The Public Policy Committee, of which I’m a member, met yesterday afternoon. One thing we reviewed was the Legislative Action Center, which keeps both SLA and; non-SLA members updated on U.S. Federal issues and legislation of importance to SLA’s membership. Additionally, you can locate and contact your congressional leaders directly, receive legislative alerts, and view SLA initiatives. The latest is about funding for the National Historical Publications and Records Commission. There’s also an update on ERIC and information on the USA PATRIOT Act Portal. We talked about setting up an RSS feed for the Center and encouraging SLA chapters’ and divisions’ Government Relations committee heads (if the chapters and divisions have them) to report on local/subject legislative and policy matters. The San Francisco Bay Region chapter is doing a great job on this.
Marydee Ojala
Editor, ONLINE: The Leading Magazine for Information Professionals
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ITI Bloggers June 6th, 2005
My visit to Toronto has been marked by a wonderful smorgasbord of culturally diverse delights. On my first evening in town, I was informed by a proud native resident that Toronto is the most culturally diverse city in the world–and offers the food/restaurant choices to prove it. Today, at the networking reception in the exhibit hall, we enjoyed an excellent spread of appetizers from around the globe—antipasto, barbeque, salads, chips and salsa, Chinese potstickers, and more. Then, tonight at the elegant awards reception, we feasted on diverse foods from across Canada, from the Atlantic to the Pacific. What a culinary delight. It’s a good thing I’m doing so much walking…
Paula J. Hane
News Bureau Chief
Information Today, Inc.
www.infotoday.com
phane {at} infotoday(.)com
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ITI Bloggers June 6th, 2005
Snapshots International, the market research firm, announced that the company will revert to its official name of Snapdata International Group. Snapdata unveiled its new Website today(http://www.snapdata.com). The company will introduce new products under the Snapdata banner and the Snapshots Series will be retained as the primary product name. Over the summer the company will build a new search engine, add new taxonomies, and add a new company search field. It is also opening a new office in New York at the end of July.
Visit Booth 1131.
Paula J. Hane
News Bureau Chief
Information Today, Inc.
www.infotoday.com
phane {at} infotoday(.)com
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ITI Bloggers June 6th, 2005
There are lots of giveaways and drawings in the exhibit hall. We’ll have more to say about some of those later, but meanwhile, here is a little contest you can enter. Write the answer to the following question on the back of your business card and leave it at the Information Today booth by the end of the day on Monday. We’ll draw one of the entries and award a prize to the lucky entrant.
Now for the question:
Which exhibitor came the greatest distance to attend the SLA exhibits?
(The distance will be measured from Toronto the city of the parent company’s headquarters. And obviously, exhibitors are ineligible for the drawing.)
Enjoy the exhibit hall!
Don Hawkins
Columnist, Information Today
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